Metaverse and your Digital IP Asset

By: Ali Hijazi
AGIP's Business Development Executive Director 

Have you thought about what the future holds for IP Digital Assets?

You may have watched videos about what the world and the internet will look like after a few years.

Well, it is the “Metaverse” that has recently become rampant on the Internet after many companies have decided to adopt the concept in their business and activities. ‘Meta’ means ‘beyond’ while ‘verse’ means ‘universal’. However, the term itself is considered relatively old and was introduced at the end of the last Century, when the author Neal Stephenson wrote characters based on a hidden and different reality, making them meet in another virtual world. All of this encouraged Facebook to change its name to become META. Metaverse in its simple definition is a three-dimensional social virtual world, or in other words, a three-dimensional Internet that is no longer limited to video games.

In the Metaverse, virtual interaction is conducted through digital characters called avatars. Users can pick the look and style of their avatar and purchase real clothes, cars, homes and anything else they can in real life through the convenience of virtual stores in the online Metaverse. It is the digital equivalent of the human you, through which you can interact with everything in the Metaverse. 

Buying goods through the Metaverse brings about pertinent questions that we as IP professionals need to be concerned with such as how brands can be protected and how IP laws and regulations can be applied within the Metaverse. After all, brands deserve the same right of protection in the Metaverse as they do in the real world.

The Metaverse, just like any technological innovation, comes with many challenges and obstacles that must be addressed if it is to achieve mass adoption. As IP experts, we face technical as well as legal challenges in implementing intellectual property across the Metaverse in a pragmatic manner. As a result, the world is currently witnessing a fast-growing demand for trademark registrations covering the Metaverse and virtual goods. The owners of brands and international stores have raised flags and are rallying to protect their brands in virtual reality to prevent any infringement or imitation. 

Big brands have started to register thousands of their trademarks in order to protect their products and services in several categories within the NICE Classification for trademark protection. Nevertheless, several important categories must be taken into consideration when registering a trademark (virtually in the metaverse), such as electronic goods, e-store services, retail items related to Internet services, items that include Internet services, entertainment, virtual services on the Internet, and other items related to every commercial and service activity.

It is quite clear that the current International NICE Classification of Goods and Services accepts goods and services that fall within the activities of the Metaverse.
Therefore, we advise brand owners to take the following proactive steps:

• Reviewing and studying the trademark portfolio of the offered goods and services, and determining whether they can be included in the virtual goods and services.
• Monitoring infringements on the Internet, websites, and platforms that rely on Metaverse technology.
• Registering the trademark in the following categories (designated goods and services) for Metaverse activities:

•Category 9: Virtual goods that can be uploaded and downloaded via the Internet.
•Category 35: Retail services for virtual goods.
•Category 42: Non-downloadable virtual goods and NFTs.

What's more, the new version of the NICE Classification will also integrate more specific items in the list of goods to cover such innovative changes in our globe.
We, at Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property (AGIP), have a specialized team of consultants in this field to help our clients and brand owners protect their digital assets within the Metaverse locally and regionally. We can help develop appropriate strategies related to the virtual world in order to market virtual services and goods via the Metaverse in a manner that protects IP rights comprehensively. 

For more information, please contact us at:

Ali Hijazi ahijazi@agip.com
Amjad Al Husseini ahusseini@agip.com